The present invention is a novel and distinct variety provided as a potential source of hydrocarbons.
For decades, Botryococcus braunii has been suggested as a potential source of liquid transport fuels and although the hydrocarbon content has been as high as 30% of biomass, such high hydrocarbon content occurs during a period of dwindling green pigmentation, the loss of chlorophyll concomitant with a resting phase of exceedingly slow growth rates. In the practice of solar irradiated mass culture, optimization of green chlorophyll pigmentation would be beneficial for the efficient capture of light for continuous rapid growth and may be accomplished by vegetative breeding to increase pigmentation. The novel variety of the present invention is anatomically distinguished by the presence of an apical depression in cells of its colonies.